


Enough

by prettyface_lonelyheart



Category: Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-06
Updated: 2018-11-06
Packaged: 2019-08-19 20:26:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16541642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prettyface_lonelyheart/pseuds/prettyface_lonelyheart
Summary: It's tough being a combat nurse. It's even tougher when the men you care for don't care about you.





	Enough

**Author's Note:**

> So this was a little thing I did for Fiction Workshop. It's basically the Basterds, with four added members. This one has gone through the mass editing process already, however, I haven't had the chance to actually apply those edits, so most of what you see is what I originally submitted to my class. Maybe when I'm working on my portfolio for the end of the semester, I'll come back and apply the edits!

It was a miracle everyone came out of that ambush unscathed, Corporal Aria Ashley thought to herself. Well, everyone with the exception of Private Simon Sakowitz, who got hit in the shin from the blast of a Walther. Aria finished wrapping the gauze around his leg and went to stand up, but felt something whizz a foot or so above her head. A scream came from behind her and she whirled around to see a newly slain German soldier lying over a pile of his comrades’ corpses. Right between his eyes was a hole; his pale forehead now splattered red, his stare vacant.

A group of cheers brought her back to Earth and with a blink of her eyes, she turned her attention to the source of the bullet.

Sergeant Chastity Warren lifted her head from behind the scope of her rifle.

“Bull’s-eye,” she smirked, the edge of her lips perking upwards into one of her freckled cheeks.

Around them, the men of the Basterds—an offset of the 1st Special Service Force—whooped.

Aria smiled and joined in on the cheering, but shortly after, she bent her knees and sunk down onto the ground next to Simon to repack her satchel.

It was as if two of the men in the unit didn’t die during their previous ambush. And it was as if it wasn’t dangling from her shoulders.

* * *

She didn’t like to think about it much. She _tried_ not to think about it much. The two men were Privates Jimmy and George Mallard. Yes, they were brothers. While Jimmy didn’t act too friendly towards Aria, George was the opposite. He got along with everybody, and she liked him a lot. Sometimes, it felt like George was the only one who actually liked Aria’s company. That’s what she felt, anyway. Aside from Chastity, George was the only one who asked how Aria was doing. She recalls a moment in which George gave her his chocolate bar from his pack of rations, probably his way of giving back to her when she’d given him a lighter or comforted him when he and Jimmy got a letter from home saying their basset hound, Junior, died.

Now he himself was gone. Just like that. She can only imagine how Jimmy and George’s mother is holding up right now, assuming she’d already gotten the telegram informing her of her sons’ passing. Not one, but two. If it was one or the other, that was bad enough. But two people? That’s double the heartbreak, considering each was a person with his own ambitions, personality quirks, likes and dislikes...

Aria tried everything. She really did. She tried, yet it seemed like she just stood there and did nothing as they bled out. All because everything she did still wasn’t good enough.

 _“I should’ve done more. How can I be so stupid? How can I let one of my best friends die like that? It’s war, I know. It just isn’t fair!”_ she tightened her lips into a straight line and closed her eyes, bowing her head over her lap.

“Aria?”

The nurse glanced over her shoulder to see her commanding officer, Lieutenant Aldo Raine, at the entrance of the room she was in.

The Basterds set up camp in an abandoned building that was presumably inhabited by the Wehrmacht some time ago. Maps and documents containing German notes in the margins were scattered across the floor of a room where a command post was probably set up. The rest of the building was just as decrepit: broken windows and blown-off doors galore.

"S-Sir...” Aria responded, trying not to give away the fact that she was on the verge of tears.

He shifted his weight back on both feet from when one leg was crossed behind the other. Silence befell the two as he pushed his body off the doorframe with his upper arm and took two steps into the room.

“Why’re you all alone in here?” he asked in his southern drawl.

“I’m used to it,” she half-joked, cracking a small smile. “You know, since Chastity and Donny became an item.”

Being the only women in the group, Aria and Chastity became fast-friends. It didn’t come as much of a shock when Chastity and Sergeant Donny Donowitz got together. They had their eye on each other since the company’s first debriefing. Chastity gushed endlessly about him to Aria, and while Aria was happy for her friend, she wouldn’t help but feel lonely. She felt alienated around the others. Now that George was gone, there’s no one else she could turn to.

A part of her hoped that she would be left alone for now so she could let her tears flow freely without further judgment... but she also craved a shoulder to cry on.

“Really, Aldo, I’m fine,” she sniffed.

With his hands on his hips, he looked down and curled his lips in. His mustache lowered on his face slightly before returning to its original position when he pursed them.

“You sure you don’t wanna talk?” his blue eyes flickered towards the young woman on the floor a few feet in front of him.

Desperate for someone to listen, she shook her head meekly and cried.

This time, Aldo didn’t hesitate to come in and sit next to her.

“It’s almost like Jimmy and George weren’t even part of this company,” Aria blurted out. “It just... It makes me mad sometimes that it seems like no one even _cares_! And it’s all my fault that they’re gone!”

Now the nurse was full-blown sobbing, her head down in defeat. She brushed a few strands of her raven black hair behind her ear and placed the knuckle of her index finger over her cupid’s bow, saltwater droplets landing on her thumb.

She took a series of deep breaths as Aldo put his hand on her back, rubbing over the smooth fabric of the jacket she’d worn since the day they dropped into France. 

Once she’d calmed down enough to quiet whimpers and sniffling, Aldo opened his mouth to speak.

“Now, now... It ain’t your fault. You did your best... and, sometimes, it’s just not in our control anymore. That don’t mean you did anything wrong. In fact, you did a great job out there. You have been since day one and I knew you would. And you know what? I know you’ll continue to.”

He looked at her with a comforting smile, gentle as she was.

Aria sat in silence for what felt like ten minutes. In reality, it was only two or three. She finally met his gaze, which made him smile wider, though not enough to be noticeable.

“Thanks, Aldo,” she mustered up her own weak-yet-hopeful grin.

He nodded, giving her a pat on her back.

“Anytime,” he spoke again. “And I can assure you that we do care about them Mallards. Great men, those two. It’s just... war. Sometimes, the only way to go is forward. But each and every one of you in this unit is important. Even you, Aria.”

Her cheeks were now tinted pink. She was thankful that the night had rolled in already, for the navy blue skies could shield her expression.

“What? You actin’ like that’s the first time you heard that,” Aldo chuckled.

 _Fuck_ , she thought.

“Well, Lieutenant, maybe it is,” she shrugged and aimed a coy, half-smile to the ground.

“Mmm, nah. I don’t think so,” he hummed and squinted his eyes to the ceiling as if deep in thought.

He continued. “But if it really is, I’m gonna change that.”

“Whatever you say, sir,” Aria joked.

“Get some sleep,” Aldo patted her knee and got up.

The heavy soles of his boots emitted a _clunk, clunk, clunk_ that followed his footsteps.

Taking one last look at her over his broad shoulder, he grinned. “Goodnight, Aria Ashley.”

All she could do was give a tight-lipped smile his way, her dark bronze irises landing on her lap not long after.

It was true that the others, mainly Chastity, had always overshadowed her. Aria expected it, but what else was a girl to do when she’s handed the opportunity to leave the house of a strict aunt who never gave a shit about her? If she was going to run away, she was going to go where she was needed.

Sadly, things didn’t turn out the way she’d anticipated. Nurses were valued on all the flyers and brochures she’d picked up at her local grocery. It goes without saying that this was only for white women. She felt so foolish now that she put the pieces together: every smiling woman with aprons that bore the Red Cross was white. Not a single colored person in sight.

It didn’t help that Aria wasn’t thin and beautiful like the other women. Too many nights were spent sitting on a barstool, her only companion being her untouched soda, while Chastity was fending off every man—both uniformed and non-uniformed—looking to get lucky. Of course, the Basterds always defended her, and God help any of those drunken idiots who came face-to-face with Donny.

They love her to death and Aria doesn’t blame them... much.

Chastity is strong, smart, and witty. She came into the Army, becoming one of the most gifted shooters in the whole Special Force. At first, the men were doubtful about her abilities, but she’s proven time and time again that she could hold her own in combat.

Aria found it unfair, as she’d worked so hard to be the best nurse she could possibly be. This was all she had. Before the war, she was just a “useless waste of life” (in the words of her aunt). She came in thinking maybe she could change that. But alas, no matter how many times she’d saved her ‘brothers’, no one gave so much as a ‘thank you’.

It was instilled in her that genuinely good people do things and don’t expect anything back. But wouldn’t it be nice to hear that ‘thank you’? Doesn’t everyone want to feel appreciated?

Her vision blurred as tears started to spill from her lash line again. She just wanted to do something good and all that was given to her was the harsh reality that you had to be one of two types: Rita Hayworth or a badass fighter who can smoke and chug pint after pint with the men. Extra bonus points if you were both. And Chastity was both.

A breeze blew past the glass spikes lining the window.

She checked the time on her small watch. Under the dried drops of blood on the clock’s face and with some help from the moonlight, she could still make out where the hands were.

_2300 hours._

_Might as well get some sleep_ , Aria thought to herself. She scooted backwards until her back hit the wall. Then, she got down on her right side, using her bent arm as a pillow. Trying to sleep will take her mind off her stress. That is, if she doesn’t get summoned for a patrol.

Now that she thought about it, she’d never been asked to do a single night of it.


End file.
